Will gpedit Target Release Version stop PARTIAL download for update to Win 11?

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For my wife’s mini-office, I just bought a BRAND NEW Dell Precision 3660 PC from Dell and made them ship with Win 10 Pro 64-bit version 21H2 and NOT Win 11.

(For me, a fancy new PC is a shock because I usually buy junky old computers on eBay and happily spend months tweaking them, with some gaffer’s tape.  My wife threatened no more clam pasta if I did that again.)

Two days after first setup and startup, I discover that Windows Update has downloaded 8% of Win 11.  Nooooooo!!!!

So, following PKCano’s excellent tutorial at < THIS LINK > , I quickly went into gpedit.msc and set Target Release Version to Windows 10 and version 21H2, and rebooted.

Questions:

1. Since Update had started to download Win 11 (8% downloaded), will my setting of Target Release Version to Win 10 21H2 stop any further a) download and b) install of Win 11?
2. After the above, I set Windows Update – Advanced to Pause for the maximum 35± days.  If I now return to Windows Update and hit the button to “Resume Updates”, will that ignore my setting of Target Release Version to Win 10 21H2 and resume downloading and installing Win 11?
3. If your responses to the above are bad for me, what should I do?
4. The actual final user interface in gpedit now has an additional white slot – one more than in PKCano’s tutorial.  That additional white slot asks,
   “Which Windows product version would you like to receive feature updates for?   e.g. Windows 10”
   So I entered Windows 10.  Should I have entered something more, like Windows 10 64-bit?  I don’t think so, but please confirm.  (Also, PKCano – you might wish to upgrade the graphic in your excellent tutorial.)
5. What else should I know or do?
   (Not only do I stop and ask directions, I ask the pedestrian to drive me there.)

Thanks, excellent readership of Ask Woody!!  And please contribute something to keep this superb website and its wonderful cast of experts going, as I do.  (But then please come back here and answer my questions.)

 

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“Windows 10” and “21H2” are the correct and sufficient settings for Group Policy to hold Windows 10 at version 21H2.

To be sure you do not get Win11, disconnect from the Internet.
Using an Admin ID (not Standard) delete the Folder
C:\Windows\SoftwareDistrubution\Download
Restart the computer.

Be sure you have the “2” (notify download/install) set in GP.
Click “Resume updates”
The checking should fail (you are still disconnected from the Internet)
Restart the computer, reconnect the Internet, and wait for WU to check for updates on its own. The pending updates should remain in the queue until you click on the “Download” (NOT “Check for updates”) button. You can use wushowhide to hide the ones you don’t want.

2 users thanked author for this post.

glnz, NetDef

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Just a quick visual aid for GPEdit.msc using PKCano’s settings above:

~ Group "Weekend" ~

1 user thanked author for this post.

glnz

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PKCano and NetDef – Thanks!  NetDef – My guesses were the same as your screenshot, but very good to see confirmation.

Question:  What is that info under Help in NetDef’s screenshot (which I also saw on the new dell last night)?  If I go to that aka.ms website, what happens?

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FYI for the future: There are screenshots at the bottom of AKB200016 that show where all the settings that are discussed in the thread are located.

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glnz wrote:

Question:  What is that info under Help in NetDef’s screenshot (which I also saw on the new dell last night)?  If I go to that aka.ms website, what happens?

You view a list of valid versions (currently supported) for Windows 10 and 11:

Supported versions of Windows client

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1778 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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